I'm Reading: The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Following the recent back-and-forth with PZ Myers and Mooney and Kirschenbaum prompted me to go read The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson. It's been a couple of years now since Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, so the controversy has died down a bit, but at the time a good number of people were fairly up in arms over it. This article from the New York Times featured prominently in the book. Looking back at the article from the present time, we can see that the Hayden Planetarium took a bold and prescient step by moving Pluto into the Kuiper Belt. In the book, Tyson recommends that we change the focus of solar system studies: instead of having students memorize the names of planets in order (you may have used mnemonics such as My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas) and then studying the properties of each planet, the solar system is more properly divided up into five families of objects that orbit the sun. The terrestrial planets lie between the sun and the asteroid belt. The jovian planets are large gaseous objects. Beyond them lie the small Kuiper belt objects (including Pluto) and the much more distant Oort cloud. Also not to be forgotten are the many varied and fascinating satellites, objects which orbit other bodies within the solar system.

The five families structure provides for a better and more interesting framework for studying the variety of the solar system. As a teacher, I will use this whenever the topic comes up. What is striking in Tyson's book is the strength of reaction among Pluto defenders. Some people apparently see questions like the number of planets as a stable, comforting foundation for their lives and any questions about Pluto's status as threatening or scary.

Mooney and Kirschenbaum apparently feel this way, with their repeated assertions that the Pluto controversy was handled poorly by scientists and science communicators. As a biologist, I do not understand the point of view that Pluto's change in status is frightening. Taxonomy is in the middle of a huge ongoing revolution as new molecular data enters the picture. A whole level of classifications - the domain level - has been added, and no branch of life has been immune to the shuffling. One of the things I've had to get used to as a biologist is the fact that old ideas in science must constantly make way for new information. Planetary astronomy has not had many upheavals lately, and people has gotten used to things sitting on a stable footing. It's a good thing for us to be flexible and open-minded in light of new information, not just as scientists but as citizens as well.

The Pluto Files (a book about plutophiles) is a fun and engaging read which I highly recommend. A short read, I was able to push through it in an afternoon.